Libertarianism, Climate Change, and Individual Responsibility

Res Publica 28 (1):125-148 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Much has been written about climate change from an ethical view in general, but less has been written about it from a libertarian point of view in particular. In this paper, I apply the libertarian moral theory to the problem of climate change. I focus on libertarianism’s implications for our individual emissions. I argue that even if our individual emissions cause no harm to others, these emissions cross other people’s boundaries, although the boundary-crossings that are due to our ‘subsistence emissions’ are implicitly consented to by others, there is no such consent to our ‘non-subsistence emissions’, and there is no independent justification for these emissions. Although offsetting would provide such a justification, most emitters do not offset their non-subsistence emissions. Therefore, these emissions violate people’s rights, which means that they are impermissible according to libertarianism’s non-aggression principle.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,486

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Justifying Subsistence Emissions: An Appeal to Causal Impotence.Chad Vance - 2021 - Journal of Value Inquiry 57 (3):515-532.
Libertarianism and Climate Change.Olle Torpman - 2016 - Dissertation, Stockholm University
Against the budget view in climate ethics.Lukas Tank - 2024 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 27 (7):1075-1088.
Carbon Offsetting.Dan Baras - 2023 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 27 (3):281-298.
Climate Change and the Ethics of Individual Emissions: A Response to Sinnott-Armstrong.Ben Almassi - 2012 - Perspectives: International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy 4 (1):4-21.
Global egalitarianism and climate change: against integrationism.Alex McLaughlin - forthcoming - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.
Climate Change, Individual Emissions, and Foreseeing Harm.Chad Vance - 2017 - Journal of Moral Philosophy 14 (5):562-584.
Reducing Personal Emissions in Response to Collective Harm.Cassidy Robertson - 2021 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 34 (2):1-13.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-06-12

Downloads
46 (#512,227)

6 months
6 (#622,431)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Olle Torpman
Stockholm University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Robert Nozick - 1974 - New York: Basic Books.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Robert Nozick - 1974 - Philosophy 52 (199):102-105.
The Realm of Rights.Judith Thomson - 1990 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

View all 41 references / Add more references